• Toxicological Research
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.171-179
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• 1996

To investigate the involvement of $5-HT_{2A}/ 5-HT_{2C} receptors in the developmental toxicity of cocaine in rats, mianserin (2.5 mg/kg), a $5-HT_{2A}/5-HT_{2C}$ receptor antagonist, and/or cocaine HCl (45 mg/kg) were administered intraperitoneally (i.p.), during postnatal days (PND) 7-13. Behavioral assessments for the rat pups were done after 100 days of age by using the progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement (FR 1-FR 128, doubled everyday) and cocaine challenge (5, 15 or 30 mg/kg i.p.) upon established FR 32 behavior. Cocaine injected just prior to the FR 32 session suppressed the established FR 32 responding in a dose-dependent manner. The low dose of cocaine did not affect the FR 32 responding, while the high dose of cocaine suppressed it in all experimental groups. However, by the middle dose of cocaine, rats previously received water-cocaine in their early life showed a marked resistance to cocaine-induced behavioral suppression, and this resistance was not observed in rats received both mianserin and cocaine in their early life. These results suggest that $5-HT_{2A}/ 5-HT_{2C}$ receptors may have an important role for the persistently altered behavioral sensitivity to cocaine caused by exposure to cocaine during development.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.467-474
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• 2019

Exposure to lead during pregnancy is a risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders in the offspring. In this study, we investigated whether exposure to low levels of lead acetate (0.2%) in drinking water during pregnancy and lactation causes behavioral impairment and affects the expression of proteins associated with neurodevelopment. Lead exposure altered several parameters in rat offspring compared with those unexposed in open-field, social interaction, and pre-pulse inhibition tests. These parameters were restored to normal levels after clozapine treatment. Western blot and immunohistochemical analyses of the hippocampus revealed that several neurodevelopmental proteins were downregulated in lead-exposed rats. The expression was normalized after clozapine treatment (5 mg/kg/day, postnatal day 35-56). These findings demonstrate that downregulation of several proteins in lead-exposed rats affected subsequent behavioral changes. Our results suggest that lead exposure in early life may induce psychiatric disorders and treatment with antipsychotics such as clozapine may reduce their incidence.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.14-26
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• 1998

본 연구에서는 SDS/polyacrylamide 젤 전기영동에 의한 쥐의 성장과정에 따른 소뇌의 단백질양상의 변화양상과 immunocytochemistry를 이용하여 c-raf a-raf kinase의 정상 소뇌에서의 분포에 대해 관찰 하였으며 western blot을 이용하여 소뇌의 단백질들에서 c-raf의 존재에 대해 살펴보았다. 단백질 양상에서 쥐의 성장에 따라 crude에선,ㄴ 49,200 dalton과 169,000 dalton 사이의 bands가 양적 증가를 보였으며 cytosolic fraction 에서는 37,800 dalton의 band가 양적 증가를 보이는데 비해 membrane fraction 에서는 260,600 dalton의 band가 증가하였다. 이러한 결과로 성장 발달에 따라 고분자 량의 물질들이 이들 소뇌 부위에서 기여하였을 것으로 추정할 수 있었다. Immunocytochemistry에 의한 분석에서는 c-raf와 a-raf가 소뇌의 피질주위에서 조롱박 세포(Purkinje cell) 의 세포질 특히 핵 주변부위에서 강하게 검출되었으며 a-raf에 비해 c-raf가 더 강하게 나타났었다. 그리고 그 외에 Nucleus embolifornis의 큰 neuronal cell의 세포질 부위의 나타남을 볼 수 있었다. Immunoblot에 의한 분석에서는 crude와 cytosolic fraction에서 raf protein kinase의 존재를 확인할 수 있었으며, 이상의 결과들을 종합해 보았을 때 소뇌의 정상의 많은 신경세포(neuronal cell)에 raf protein kinase가 분포되어 있으며 이들이 정상의 cell에서 기능을 가질 것으로 추정된다.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.8-16
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• 2016

적절한 농도의 활성산소종(ROS)은 병원체에 대한 세포의 방어, 신호 전달, 세포 성장 및 유전자 발현을 포함한 다양한 정상 세포 기능을 매개한다. 최근의 연구는 ROS와 ROS를 생성하는 NADPH 산화 효소(Nox)가 성인 쥐 뇌의 뇌실 하 영역(SVZ)에 있는 신경 줄기세포의 자가 복제와 신경 세포 분화에 중요하다는 것을 보여 주었다. 본 연구에서 세포 내 ROS가 갓 태어난 쥐의 뇌에서 적출되어 배양된 SVZ 신경 줄기세포에서 검출된 것으로 나타났다. Nox 유사 유전자들 중 Nox4가 배양된 세포에서 주로 발현되었고, Nox1과 Nox2는 거의 발현되지 않았다. 또한, Nox4 유전자는 신경 세포 분화 동안 최대 10배까지 발현이 크게 증가하였다. Immunocytochemistry결과 Nox4 단백질은 신경 세포 특이적인 tubulin인 Tuj1-양성 신경 세포에서 주로 발견되었다. 이와 맥을 같이 하여, 내인성 ROS는 분화 후 축삭돌기를 가지고 있으며 신경 세포로 보이는 세포에서만 검출되었다. 또한, ROS를 제거하는N-acetyl cysteine에 의해 세포 산화 환원 상태가 교란되었을 때, 신경 세포로의 분화가 크게 감소하였다. 마지막으로, shRNA를 이용하 여 Nox4를 knockdown한 세포에서 신경 세포로의 분화가 감소하였다. 이러한 연구 결과는 Nox4가 갓 태어난 쥐의 SVZ 신경 줄기 세포의 주요한 ROS 생성 효소이고, Nox4에 의한 ROS생성이 신경 세포 분화에 중요하다는 것을 암시한다.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.587-592
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• 2007

생쥐 유전자를 과발현 시키거나 제거하는 유전자 조작 기술의 발달은 배 발생 단계나 출생 후 특정한 세포에서의 특정 단계에서의 유전자 기능을 이해하는 많은 기여를 하고 있다. 특히, 높은 상동 재조합 활성을 가지는 생쥐 배 줄기세포를 이용한 유전자 적중 기법은 인간 질환을 이해하는데 필수적인 동물 모델 개발에 중요한 기여를 하였다. 최근에는 Cre과 Flp와 같은 염기서열 특이적 재조합 효소와 라이겐드에 의한 조절 시스템의 도입으로 좀 더 정확하고 정교한 유전자 발현 조절을 위해 개발되어 복잡한 생명현상을 지배하는 메카니즘과 시간과 공간에서 작동하는 유전자의 기능을 이해하는데 많은 기여를 하고 있다. 마우스 게놈을 세밀하게 조작할 수 있는 새로운 분자생물학적 도구의 적용으로 in vivo상에서 유전자의 다양한 기능을 좀 더 정확하게 이해할 수 있는 기회가 열릴 것으로 기대된다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.134-138
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• 2016

Objectives: Season of birth, an exogenous indicator of early life environment, has been related to higher risk of adverse psychiatric outcomes but the findings for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been inconsistent. We investigated whether the month or season of birth are associated with AD. Methods: A nationwide nested case-control study including all community-dwellers with clinically verified AD diagnosed in 2005 to 2012 (n=70 719) and up to four age- sex- and region of residence-matched controls (n=282 862) residing in Finland. Associations between month and season of birth and AD were studied with conditional logistic regression. Results: Month of birth was not associated with AD (p=0.09). No strong associations were observed with season (p=0.13), although in comparison to winter births (December-February) summer births (June-August) were associated with higher odds of AD (odds ratio, 1.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.00 to 1.05). However, the absolute difference in prevalence in winter births was only 0.5% (prevalence of those born in winter were 31.7% and 32.2% for cases and controls, respectively). Conclusions: Although our findings do not support the hypothesis that season of birth is related to AD/dementia risk, they do not invalidate the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis in late-life cognition. It is possible that season does not adequately capture the early life circumstances, or that other (postnatal) risk factors such as lifestyle or socioeconomic factors overrule the impact of prenatal and perinatal factors.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제60권1호
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• pp.10-16
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• 2017

Purpose: Although procalcitonin (PCT) level is useful for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis, PCT reliability is inconsistent because of the varied conditions encountered in neonatal intensive care units. This study aimed to investigate PCT levels and factors influencing increased PCT levelin newborns without bacterial infection during the first week of life. Methods: In newborns hospitalized between March 2013 and October 2015, PCT levels were measured on the first, third, and seventh days after birth. Newborns with proven bacterial (blood culture positive for bacteria) or suspicious infection (presence of C-reactive protein expression or leukocytosis/leukopenia) were excluded. Various neonatal conditions were analyzed to identify the factors influencing increased PCT level. Results: Among 292 newborns with a gestational age of $35.2{\pm}3.0$ weeks and a birth weight of $2,428{\pm}643g$, preterm newborns (n=212) had higher PCT levels than term newborns (n=80). Of the newborns, 7.9% had increased PCT level (23 of 292) on the firstday; 28.3% (81 of 286), on the third day; and 3.3% (7 of 121), on the seventh day after birth. The increased PCT level was significantly associated with prenatal disuse of antibiotics (P=0.004) and surfactant administration (P<0.001) on the first day after birth, postnatal use of antibiotics (P=0.001) and ventilator application (P=0.001) on the third day after birth, and very low birth weight (P=0.042) on the seventh day after birth. Conclusion: In newborns without bacterial infection, increased PCT level was significantly associated with lower gestational age and respiratory difficulty during the first week of life. Further studies are needed for clinical applications.

• Journal of Biomedical and Translational Research
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• 제19권4호
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• pp.125-129
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• 2018

Dopaminergic neurons are one of the major neuronal components in the brain. Mesencephalon dopamine (DA) neurogenesis takes place in the ventricular zone of the floor plate, when DA progenitors divide to generate postmitotic cells. These cells migrate through the intermediate zone while they differentiate and become DA neurons on reaching the mantle zone. However, neurogenesis and neuronal migration on dopaminergic neurons remain largely unexplored in the mesencephalon development. This study presents neurogenesis and neuronal migration patterns of dopaminergic neurons during mesencephalic development of the mouse. Neurons from embryonic day (E) 10-14 were labelled by a single injection of 5-bromodeoxyuridine and immunohistochemistry was performed. The neurogenesis occurred mainly at the E10 and E11, which was uniformly distributed in the mesencephalic region, but neurons after E13 were observed only in the dorsal mesencephalon. At the postnatal day 0 (P0), E10 generated neurons were spread out uniformly in the whole mesencephalon whereas E11-originated neurons were clearly depleted in the red nucleus region. DA neurons mainly originated in the ventromedial mesencephalon at the early embryonic stage especially E10 to E11. DA neurons after E12 were only observed in the ventral mesencephalon. At E17, E10 labelled neurons were only observed in the substantia nigra (SN) region. Our study demonstrated that major neurogenesis occurred at E10 and E11. However, neuronal migration continued until neonatal period during mesencephalic development.

• 여성건강간호학회지
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.315-328
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the components and nature of happiness in middle-aged women in Korea. Methods: Thirty middle-aged women living in metropolitan Seoul and Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces agreed to participate in this study. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with the participants in one-on-one settings. The data were analyzed qualitative using Colaizzi's method of phenomenology. Results: The three theme clusters were extracted from the raw data, along with 13 themes and 138 meaningful sentences and phrases. The three happiness theme clusters in middle-aged women were "live healthy for stability," "rule one's mind for harmony," and "activate hopes for self-esteem." The first theme cluster included healthy life, economic stability, physical youth, and positive thought. The second theme cluster included that harmonious family, ruling of mind, my position as invisible person in social relationships, and precious relationships to support. The last theme included the center of one's life is oneself, a sense of accomplishment, self-improvement, recognition of one's worth and rest for one self. The three theme clusters were associated with the existence, relatedness, and growth (ERG) of ERG areas, respectively. Conclusions: We conclude that the core components of happiness in middle-aged women are to live healthy and mind-ruled and activate hope. The nature of happiness is egocentric stability in middle-aged women. The results suggest that theme clusters might be used to develop a scale for measuring happiness in middle-aged women. This will be helpful to assess the psychosocial status of middle-aged women in Korea.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.7-10
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• 1998

The present report describes a case that showed a normal fetal karyotype in an antenatal genetic study but an abnormal placental karyotype of 46,XX,r (15) on postnatal examination. The pregnancy was complicated by fetal nuchal translucency in the first trimester and intrauterine growth restriction in the second and third trimesters. A 1780 gm female baby was born after 40 weeks of gestation, but died of respiratory distress and sepsis on the 10th day of life. Our case was unique in that the placental chromosomal aberration was a structural abnormality instead of a numerical aberration that is seen in most reported cases of confined placental mosaicism.